Yogic Flying and GM Foods:The Wild Theories of Jeffrey Smith

Jeffrey Smith demonstrating “yogic flying” during a Natural Law Party press conference in Springfield, Ill., on Oct. 22, 1996, where he was a member of a party delegation from Iowa. (Image freely licensed and released for public use.)

Jeffrey Smith isn’t bound by the usual conventions. He once advocated getting thousands of people to collectively practice transcendental meditation – the yogic flying technique, to be precise, as he shows at left (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TM-Sidhi_program) – to reduce crime and increase “purity and harmony” in the “collective consciousness.” Here Smith can be seen demonstrating yogic flying at an Illinois news conference on Oct. 22, 1996, where he was promoting it for the Natural Law Party of Iowa.

Smith is now better known for his theories about biotech agriculture, or GM foods. His self-published books Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette have built for him an online profile that has made Smith one of the most widely quoted opponents of biotech ag —despite his evident lack of scientific credentials or other formal training on the subject. (He has had formal training in swing dancing, however, which he used to teach professionally.)

In addition, the “scientific studies” that Smith says support his theories are thoroughly contradicted by a vast body of data and scientific experience; they are wholly irresponsible. In his single-minded campaign against GM crops, Smith has shown an amazing capacity to ignore the scientific literature on almost every topic he discusses.

But, as he showed at that press conference when he explained the role that meditation should play in the “collective consciousness,” Smith is a gifted communicator.

He’s particularly adept at getting his message out via the latest online methods, which he uses to spread his misinformation about biotechnology, in particular, to an ever-widening audience. In his most recent self-published book, Genetic Roulette, Smith claims to show 65 different “documented health risks” associated with biotech foods. Not one of them has been found to be scientifically valid by Academics Review.

Comments (4)

[...] Genetic ID is at the centre of the network but I would like to draw your attention to another node: Jeffrey Smith. You will recall that Smith got the lion’s share of airtime and the accolades (relative to Dr. Pam Ronald*) on the Dr. Oz episode earlier this week on Genetic Engineering and GM Food (- to view the episode, follow this link: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/genetically-modified-foods-pt-1). Jeffrey Smith is the VP of Communications for Genetic ID. He also has close connections to the Natural Law Party and, although I was unable to find a documented or direct connection to it, the Maharishi Institute. The Maharishi – a Transcendental Meditation “TM” yogi – and his legacy of affiliated interests and institutions are also central. Most of the organizations and several of the individuals are from Fairfield, Iowa where the Maharishi University is centered. The Maharishi (1914-2008) was a proponent of Vedic Science (look it up, weird stuff) who established the Natural Law Party. The NLP’s platform revolves around the Vedic Science and TM (Jeffrey Smith ran for US senate in 1998 in Iowa for the NLP). The Natural Law Party has branches in both the US and in New Zealand. (check out Smith practicing ‘yogic flying’ on: academicsreview.org/reviewed-individuals/jeffrey-smith/) [...]

[…] Worse, not a single speaker has the proper qualifications to make authoritative claims about GMOs. What does it say about the Veg outlook on scientific credibility when, in an attempt to explain how Canadians are affected by GMOs, the organizers have invited a Joga instructor (yes, that’s Joga, not yoga), the owner of Hippie Foods (who has a financial interest in castigating GMOs), an entertainment reporter, a snack mix purveyor, a 14-year old, a vegan fitness expert, and, Jeffrey Smith, a former practitioner of “flying yoga” who now poses under the guise of the Institute for Responsible Technology (and who has been called out by real scientists as an imposter)? […]

[…] of his program, Lisa Oz, is a supporter of brazen anti-genetic-engineering campaigner and self-described levitator Jeffrey Smith. An advocate of alternative health products—the manufacturers of which happen to sponsor her and […]

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Jeffrey Smith Stats

Jeffrey Smith of Fairfield, Iowa, was once nearly as well known for his swing-dancing lessons as his “expertise” in biotech agriculture. Still, Smith, who has also enjoyed longtime ties to Fairfield’s Maharishi religious group and the state’s Natural Law political party, travels the world reading excerpts from his two self-published books on genetic engineering.